Orlando Shooting Ruled Not a Hate Crime, Theory Condemned by LGBT Group

An FBI official has said that there is no evidence that the Orlando Pulse club shooting was a hate crime.

An official spoke to the Washington Post, saying: “While there can be no denying the significant impact on the gay community, the investigation hasn’t revealed that he targeted Pulse because it was a gay club.”

Many of you undoubtedly heard the rumours that the shooter, Omar Mateen, was gay and struggling with his sexuality. Numerous men came forward to claim they had seen him on dating apps such as Grindr. Even his ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, supported theories that he might be gay.

However, the official said that there was no hard evidence to back up these claims, and stated that there was evidence he was cheating on his wife with other women. Also, witnesses to the masscare have said Mateen did not shout homophobic abuse during the attack.

An LGBT activist group, QueerNation NY, has condemned this response from the FBI. They are arguing that the Pulse tragedy was definitely a hate crime.

They said: “Sadly, we have far more experience with hate crimes than the FBI, which rarely investigates such crimes, and we also know that law enforcement is notorious for resisting branding crimes as motivated by hate.”

“When a killer drives two hours out of his way to murder 49 people and wound another 53, that wasn’t a random selection. When he declares allegiance to an organization that is also known for killing LGBTQ people, among too many others, it’s not a coincidence that he targeted an LGBTQ club. We’ve seen this before too many times so we know a hate crime when we see one—the Pulse Nightclub massacre was a hate crime.”